Love Don't Live Here Anymore
by ThereIsOnlyZuul
Summary: A cute little one-shot about the Big Sister, Little Sister relationship.


Here's another one-shot story that I wrote many years ago about an original character called Big Sister '193'. This one's much cuter and less violent/filled with swears - a very rare occasion within my writing! Still rated M though because the f word is said once or twice and heaven forbid I rate it T and then get in trouble about miss-rating it.

The other story I have posted on featuring here is at this link: s/9345211/1/Last-Line-of-Defense

Enjoy and do feel free to review.

Cheers!

* * *

Big Sister '193' peeled off her homemade armor and diving suit. She had been collecting up an abandoned Little Sister in Ryan Amusements when a gang of splicers over took her demanding she hand over her and the little one's ADAM. Since there was no way in hell that was going to happen, she fought them. In the end, she won. She always did. But she had been wounded.

_Shot yet again. And it closed up. Damn it._

Most would call her ability to instantly heal a medical miracle but she knew it was because of all the residual ADAM coursing through her system. As a Little Sister she had been brimming with ADAM and even though her days of producing it in her own belly had long past she still had enough in her body to give her superhuman abilities.

Clenching her teeth (not worrying if they chipped because they would–like everything else in her body–heal) she took her own ADAM extraction needle and dug it into her arm. She hit a bone, yelped, but kept the needle in her arm. She eventually found the bullet and, before the wound could heal, she dropped the needle and plunged her fingers into the deep gash. The bullet came out intact and she let out a sigh of relief. An intact bullet meant one less cut, one less self-inflicted scar, one less ADAM infused drop of blood wasted.

"Big Sister, are you alright?"

Big Sister turned to see the angelic face of a Little Sister peeking around the corner. Big Sister smiled and gestured for the Little Sister to come closer. She skipped across the dirty tile floor with her dirty little feet. "I'm sure those angels didn't mean to hurt you, Big Sister. It must have just been a mistake."

"Yes, I'm quite sure it was just a big misunderstanding." Big Sister grimaced at her own voice. She didn't have company often, so she often said nothing at all; outside of her own head of course. Her voice sounded foreign and uncaring to her ears; she hoped it didn't sound that way to the little one. "Do you know what happened to your Daddy, sweetie?"

Little Sister looked thoughtful as she tried to remember. Her conditioning left her in a constant state of ignorance, so Big Sister wasn't expecting anything concise. "Daddy just went… mean. He was rough and I told him to stop but he wouldn't…" she got teary-eyed as she thought about her Daddy betraying her. She was brainwashed into trusting her life with the great, hulking brutes: coping with betrayal was not something she could, in any stretch of the imagination, cope with. Of course her conditioning left little up to her own mind and her mood changed suddenly to that of her normal happy disposition. "Thank you for saving me! Daddy will be so jealous when he sees us playing together!"

"I'm sure he will be," smiled Big Sister, even though she knew that Big Daddy would never see this Little Sister again. When Splicers had shown up (as they also do when there's a struggle near by) and the little girl's vigilant attention was removed from her Daddy, it had been a perfect time to permanently take him out.

_So many Big Daddies have gone rogue lately; for some reason they've all started clamouring for ADAM. Alexander Gil has to get this fixed: I can't keep saving the little girls. I'm so exhausted._

"I think it's time for bed, don't you think?"

"No Big Sister! I'm not sleepy! Let's play!"

Big Sister sighed, she was exhausted from constantly fighting the Splicers that demanded her Adam with violence and threats and now she had saving little girls from certain doom at the hands of their rogue protectors on top of that. She lost blood and sleep on a daily basis and as more of this monstrous city fell to ruins, she lost hiding places and provisions. Of course no Little Sister could see any of this happening: the city falling to pieces, the crazy inhabitants that killed innocent little girls to feed their ravenous drug addiction. To them, this was all just one big game. They couldn't even see the Big Sisters and Big Daddies that protected them for what they were: big metal monsters.

_ Do I look different without the suit on. _

"Do I look different to you, Little Sister?" She crouched so that she was eye level with the little girl.

The Little Sister leaned in closely and touched Big Sister's hair, and moved her face from left to right. "Nope. You look the same to me!" Big Sister smiled, relieved that she wasn't a monster in the little ones eyes. She grabbed the Little Sister and stood, twirling her around the tiny bathroom of the hotel room in the derelict and collapsing Sinclair hotel that she called home. Giggling loudly, the little girl asked: "You're not tired any more, Big Sister?"

"Not too tired, no."

"What are we going to do now then?"

"I was thinking you'd have a bath while I fixed up your little polka dot dress."

"A bath? Oh, that's no fun!"

"The differences between boring necessities and fun diversions are vast." Little Sister screwed up her face in confusion. Big Sister laughed as she turned on the taps to the bathtub. "Never mind." She helped the little girl out of her disgustingly dirty and torn dress, untied her hair bow, and dunked her into the tub. The girl giggled as Big Sister tossed her a bar of soap and pulled out a small container of bath toys: rubber duckies, a small motorized tug boat, even bathtub chalk that she had found at a looted, nearly empty toy store.

"Thank you, Big Sister!"

"You be sure to get nice and clean for me, okay? Don't let that clean water go to waste."

The Little Sister nodded as she squeaked the rubber duckie. "Alright, but you have to leave the room while I do it!"

"Well, Little-Miss-Independent. I'll leave you to it."

"Yes please!" Exclaimed the little girl.

Smiling, Big Sister grabbed the Sister's dress and headed to where she had made her bedroom: a simple mattress lain on the ground. In a small chest near her mattress she dug out a needle and thread and set to work on mending the tiny piece of clothing. After she was done with the rips, she would use the bathwater to scrub the blood and dirt out of the fabric.

After only a few minutes of stitching there was a large splash from the bathroom and the little girl squealed happily. Although entranced by the overall adorableness of it all, Big Sister couldn't afford anyone near to hear the noise. "You're going to have to keep it down."

"But the ceiling is falling and splashed my water everywhere!"

Big Sister bit back a curse. She was so tired of Rapture: the decaying legacy of a long-dead man who was as mad as a hatter, but whose ideas still clung to the skeleton of Rapture like a ghost. Because of him the residents of this once magnificent city were more concerned with their constant high on ADAM and EVE than keeping their home from dying. This room was collapsing, the hotel was collapsing, the whole fucking city was collapsing and no one was ever going to fix it. It would just it worse and worse until everyone was dead and the sea took back what Andrew Ryan had desecrated.

"I guess it's time to get out," Big Sister sighed as she went to the backroom to find that a ceiling tile had come crashing down into the little one's bath. Big Sister tried not to look repulsed at the dirty, blood coloured water as she grabbed the little one under her arms and lifted her out. Maybe it was Big Sister's mind playing tricks, but without the thick layer of dirt covering the little girl, she felt lighter. "Did you wash your hair?"

"Uh-huh! I'm all clean and pretty!"

"You're always pretty, sweetie," Big Sister smiled as she grabbed a clean towel (a rare and wonderful discovery she stumbled upon while looking for corpses one day) and wrapped it around the little girl. She dried her quickly, causing the little girl to giggle as she was shaken and tickled; and they both got a good laugh at the state of the little girl's hair after Big Sister rubbed the towel over her head.

"It feels nice to be clean!" Exclaimed the Little Sister.

"Doesn't it though?" Big Sister pulled a clean undershirt over the little girl's head and she held out a tiny, clean pair of underwear for the girl to step into. After quickly running a brush through her hair, she asked: "You ready for bed?" The Little Sister nodded so Big Sister scooped her up and took her to the mattress.

Pushing aside her own meager belongings, she placed the little girl between the covers and pulled the blanket up to her chin. With the Little Sister looking so comfortable, Big Sister's exhaustion over took her. Forgetting completely about washing the little girl's dress she crawled under the covers and snuggled herself close to the little one: wrapping her arms possessively around her.

"Big Sister?"

"Yes?"

"The bad people won't get me when I'm with you, will they?"

"Never."

"Will Daddy come to get me tomorrow?"

"Maybe. Until he comes for you though, you'll stay right here with me."

Big Sister would have liked to keep the little girl with her forever, to save her from the awful life of being a Little Sister–to save her from the nightmare land of Rapture altogether–but she knew she couldn't. Eventually a Big Daddy would find the hidey-hole outside the room and bang on it for this little girl to join him. She really did love these little girls like family and the thought of seeing another one walking off with a Big Daddy brought tears to her eyes.

"I love you, Big Sister." The Little Sister said sleepily.

Big Sister nuzzled her face into the little girl's wet, fragrant hair. "I love you too, Little One. Sleep well."

Quickly the little girl's breathing slowed and she was sound asleep. Big Sister let a few tears fall at the thought of a Daddy taking her away to continue being part of the ADAM program. It was an inevitable as the fall of Rapture and Big Sister knew that. Of course, that didn't mean that a Daddy would come quickly. Big Sister had a few tricks to keep them away and until one managed to find his way to them, Big Sister was going to enjoy the family life.


End file.
